War Thunder: American ground forces Rank II - Review and Analysis

hello everyone welcome to the channel so finally on to tier two it's taken a while things have been very busy over here but i finally managed to get it done sorry for the wait if you're new here thanks for tuning in but i do recommend watching the previous video on tier one first as for brevity i'll be calling back to some points made in that video but anyway thank you all for being here as always i really hope you enjoy so starting off today we have the m5a1 stewart a very worthy successor to the m3a1 in the previous episode this version is improved in essentially every way but has placed two jumps up in vr at 2.7 but for what it is it is still very effective in comparison to the previous m3 the m5 is slightly slower in top speed due to the increase in weight but it does have a more powerful engine which allows it to be much more agile it can maneuver very easily and has a faster reverse gear at 14 kph in reverse which allows it to back out of tricky situations much easier armor overall is improved too but as it is a light tank the armor is still nothing to rely on the front hull offers around 40 to 50 millimeters of effective protection which won't really save you from anything above auto cannons really although against them it is close to immune frontally although 20 millimeter shells can still slip through the turret ring the turret itself is similar in designs to previous m3 with roughly the same armor thickness although the m5 is slightly better off which means that it can still sometimes catch poorly placed rounds from some of the more powerful guns which is still pretty decent for a light tank speaking of this thing's classification as a light tank from tier 2 and up light tanks get some special perks unique to the class if you played the game for a while you probably know about this but these tanks have a scouting function when the scouting key is pressed over an enemy they'll get pinged on the map for your team and you'll receive points by proxy when the target is damaged or destroyed getting these by proxy kills also reduces the spawn cost of aircraft so if you fancy a more cast oriented playstyle light tanks are a good fit the m5a1 comes with exactly the same rounds as the m3 so there's no direct firepower improvement it does get an hd shell but low calibration has basically no meaningful applications so it's better off ignored really the m5 does have improved usability when it comes to firepower though the turret traverse is slightly faster and it does get a few extra degrees of gun depression as well which does give it a bit more versatility in matches ultimately not much with this version changes play style wise as it effectively plays to exactly the same strengths but the higher battle ratings that you'll fight at now at 2.7 and above will force you to change this up a bit at 2.0 and below the previous stuart could comfortably play the jack of all trades role but at 3.7 not so much for the m5a1 it's important to focus on the mobility of the tank and stick to the flanks your gun is still okay but it doesn't have the accuracy or reliable damage to take out a lot of these tanks front on so you'll need to prioritize engaging from the side and disable them from there the enemies that you'll start meeting up to will become a lot harder to take out of course because they generally have better armor but also because the crew are usually more spread out around the inside of the tank which combined with your poor accuracy and small cone of damage can make disabling these tanks a bit tricky so you should keep this in mind when you're playing in up tiers in general if you're fighting a tougher tank like the t-34s or later panzerfalls try and knock out the breech or the gunner first you won't need to approach every tank you meet this carefully but if you're not quite as confident with the gun it is a more reliable way to play of course you should prioritize engaging enemies from the side if you can but it would be disingenuous to pretend that that's a constant possibility from the side you can pretty much disable anything easily apart from some really strong tanks like the kv-1 and churchill gun carrier for example although you can get through these two at very close range because you fire so quickly you can afford to use your first shot to disable the enemy's engine or driver and then pick off the rest of the crew as if you were to shoot center mass you might miss some of the critical crew and allow the enemy to readjust their position to face you disabling them first nullifies this possibility which makes securing kills much easier there aren't really too many other gimmicks to this vehicle it's a very friendly vehicle to play because there's nothing really intrinsic about it that holds it back at all you just need to have good positioning and good shot placement i can't really go into those two points broadly without over complicating things ultimately if you keep to the core playstyle of the stuarts from the last episode and situationally adjust to a more cautious play style than up tiers you should still get some pretty great results with this thing pros great mobility decent firepower and versatile and the cons unreliable armor and poor accuracy verdict i'd absolutely get it it's a very forgiving tank to use at the br and can still function in upper tiers 2. it's a little bit harder to excel with it in optis now that its br has been changed to 2.7 but it still does really well and can work well beyond its br2 although with the next tank in the line you might not need to use it for too long next up we have the m24 chaffee quite a drastic change in design from the previous light tanks but thankfully it's a very good change relative to its higher br of 3.3 it is less forgiving than the stuart but it ultimately does have more potential and still hits all of the keynotes that light tanks need to hit armor-wise it's predictably nothing special it holds around 50-60 millimeters of general frontal protection but as it does feature lots of slopes in its armor layout it can occasionally catch incoming shots but it's in no way reliable as well it's arguably weaker to auto cannons than the stewart as well as they can rip right through the front of the turret at close range but in any case armor is the least important factor to focus on here mobility is very effective it's a little slower to accelerate than the stuart and offers slightly worse off-road mobility but it is still a very agile and maneuverable vehicle that can turn and reposition quickly it can also reach 23 kph in reverse which really helps the chaffey back away from danger in good time potentially its best asset though is the firepower and we'll be seeing this gun a lot the chaffee uses the 75 millimeter m6 cannon which is functionally identical to the m3 version found on the m8a1 in the last episode which is the most common variant of this canon we'll be seeing it comes with stock ap that's fairly unimpressive at 91 millimeters point blank but it's here too it can unlock the m61 apa g shell which tier four tier is probably one of my favorite rounds in the entire game at 104 millimeters point blank and with a really strong slope modifier this round can get through the bulk of enemies at this tier very easily and with just over 60 grams of explosive filler it usually one shots them as well we'll talk a little bit more about this round in a bit but briefly it's incredibly effective and unlocking it should be prioritized the chaffee is also one of the first vehicles that can effectively use smoke it of course can carry smoke rounds but also has a roof mounted smoke grenade launcher as well which can help you get out of trouble or block off a sight line the other asset of the chaffey's firepower is the stabilizer the chaffee and shermans use a unique short stop stabilizer that can lock the gun in place up to 23 kph which makes the chaff be able to quickly fire accurately when coming to a stop which is a really vital asset for its playstyle a downside though is the reload at 8.6 second stock it does outpace most of the russian cannons but is slower than the majority of the german cannons and in any case isn't exceedingly quick which means you will need to land your shots carefully which probably will take some getting used to when using the chaffey unlike most of the shermans the chaffee has quite a high zoom and this combined with the low ish velocity of the round can make aiming difficult when starting out with it but with some practice you can definitely get the hang of how it works like the stuart the chaffee is a very versatile light tank in the sense that if you're careful you can play it like a regular medium tank and still see some success but there are better ways to use it or at least safer ways to use it the chaffee is incredibly effective at taking enemies by surprise the high damage of the cannon combined with the mobility and stabilizer really allow it to knock out enemies quickly and there are a few ways to integrate this advantage into your playstyle of course having no reliable armor the chaffee really needs to avoid open ground always try to have some form of hard cover around you the chaffee is very reactive so it can pull back behind cover very quickly if you run into trouble if you have no cover around you you can't really use this defensive ability so definitely keep this in mind the chaffey can operate very well on the flanks or at least outside of the front line of action from the side the cannon can one shot almost anything so if you're engaging enemies from the side you'll run into no issues with firepower the chaffee has the mobility to run the sidelines quite effectively and the stabilizer as well helps a lot with this if you run into another light tank trying to flank the stabilizer will allow you to hit them first so this is a safe way to play from the sidelines you can pick off enemies or at least scout them from your team but again remember to stay in cover on the flanks you still don't have a very rapid reload so if you're out of cover and engaging an enemy if you miss and alert them to where you are they may be able to hit you before you can reload so even in an advantageous position it's still good to play it safe the other way i'd recommend playing it and actually the way i prefer to play is around an area most maps have but this area doesn't really have a set name as the thematics of most maps make locations like this vague to describe generally i've spoken about it before in previous videos but the sort of location i mean is one that keeps me in constant cover from the front line of the enemy but lets you pop out of cover to shoot at approaching enemies this can either be a death blade in terrain or behind building or rock etc to generalize you need to try and find an area that keeps you in cover but allows you to potentially cover multiple sight lines at once the chaffey is ideal for this as the mobility and stabilizer let it poke out of cover while keeping the gun stable and pull back into cover very quickly and this sort of playstyle is great for keeping you alive while in tandem making sure you have a pretty decent impact on the match if you can find a spot behind low cover it's even better as you can scout enemies over it for your team this is where i like to play it but you don't quite need a spot like this for the chaffee to work it's not a requirement it's gunner mobility will cover it just about anywhere but you do need to always try and play around some sort of cover otherwise you're a very easy shot pros great mobility great firepower and versatile and the cons force 5 ability verdicts i definitely get it it works really well on its own vr and in the higher tiers as well its mobility will never not be effective so the chaffey is still a decent backup down the line it's not hugely forgiving but it's still a great introductory light tank with a lot of potential once you get the hang of it next up we have a fairly unique vehicle the m3 li and this tank is quite different to a lot of its contemporaries chiefly of course because it has two guns one 37 millimeter in the turret and 175 in the hull the 37 is functionally identical to the gun on the stewart with the same penetration performance and rounds the 75 is very similar to the chaffey's gun in function it uses exactly the same shells but does lose a few millimeters of penetration although it doesn't impact much it performs very very similarly all the same both guns are as well stabilized holding steady up to around 15 kph which is the same as the first cruise control gear which is pretty nice mobility 2 isn't that bad it can reach 38 kph off road quite comfortably but it doesn't maneuver very well turning the hull is quite slow which can make repositioning to get the hull's gun on target a bit tricky it also reverses quite slowly as well at only 5kph so while it's fast in a straight line it's not exactly agile or at least as agile as it needs to be armor is interesting though it's a bit of a mixed bag frankly the main armor plates are 50 millimeters thick with a sloped 38 millimeter plate joining the upper and lower hull frontally it has around 60 millimeters of effective armor although this of course varies depending on the slope modifier of the round hitting you the turret is a little better though apart from the optic weak spot it has around 80 millimeters of effective thickness which is pretty good the tank is also manned by six crew which does give it a bit of extra survivability the difficulty that comes with judging the armor though is that its effectiveness is very br dependent at 2.7 it's a very well protected machine but above that and its reliability starts to waver a bit the long german 50 millimeter gun as well as the 75 can cut right through it same with the russian 76 it is very capable against a lot of the lower caliber guns though so its armor can work it's just not constantly reliable that's effectively the case for every tank in the game but it's harsher for the lee as some tanks don't even need to aim to one-shot it which is difficult as it is a vehicle that somewhat relies on its armor working as it functions at its best when it can stay aggressive at close range in the right situation the lee has a lot of potential because it has two guns that function quite differently it has pretty much all bases covered in the firepower department you can control both of the guns at once but with some hotkeys you can switch between them to aim them both manually but this loses you time in an engagement if you set up a hotkey for firing the secondary weapon you can use both of the guns without needing to switch between them and this is how i use it your main gun sight is linked to the 37 though and it does mean firing the 75 without a sight which will take some getting used to as it does have some parallax it did take me a while to get my aim back with it while playing for this video it does make aiming a bit harder but it does save you time and in tank engagements time is the one thing you really can't afford to lose as long as you're fighting an enemy that struggles with your armor you can afford to be very aggressive the lee is a good tank for putting pressure on your enemies as with the combined cannons you can fire very rapidly and this usually rushes enemies into firing you before properly aiming for weak spots so the lee is good at brawling in that sense one thing to keep in mind though is the poor reactive mobility if there's an enemy at your side you will struggle to bring the front of the hull around to bear before taking a hit or two so the lee works very well on linear sight lines a bit like playing a tank destroyer but with an extra turret the ultimate issue with the lee is the armor though against weak tanks you can pretty much roll all over them without a care but as soon as you meet something with a bigger gun it kills the playstyle really but thankfully it's only at around 3.3 that you start meeting these tanks consistently and even then you'll only see a few of them in most matches so unless you're in a full up tier the lee will still work in general try to position yourself in such a way where you can keep the bulk of the enemy presence in front of you you can flank with the lee it's not impossible but it is more risky positioning yourself in this way keeps your armor and firepower the most effective so keep an eye on the map and try not to overextend for using the guns what i usually do for safety if i need to is use the 37 to either disable the gunner or engine of the enemy and then line up the 75 and finish them off with that sometimes this isn't even necessary as the 37 on its own still isn't a bad weapon but this double tap with the guns can finish off enemies quite quickly playing at close range helps this as well as at distance the 75 is pretty hard to aim if you aren't controlling it manually and as well at range the 37 doesn't quite have the accuracy or damage potential medium or close range is where this thing is in its element really apart from that practice the guns and try not to overextend and the lee should give you some pretty good matches pros great firepower decent armor and versatile and the cons suffers an up tiers verdict get it 2.7 has a very strong lineup which means you don't need to force yourself to play the lee in up tiers or tricky maps as the other vehicles will have you covered playing this thing is a bit of a dice roll but if you get it right the li is really effective the only issue is longevity as above 3.7 it doesn't really have much use so even though it's great at its own vr it's not a vehicle you should keep in your lineup for too long so next up we have the first of many shermans this is the m4a1 the shermans are probably my favorite base vehicle in the entire game i really like everything about them and we start off with a very good one it does have its flaws but at 3.3 it's a fantastic platform five power wise it's equipped with the 75 millimeter m3 cannon which is the more common variant and functionally identical to the gun on the chaffee it uses exactly the same rounds and has exactly the same stabilization and turret rotation speed it also gets a couple of extra degrees of gun depression which is really nice it also has a faster reload at 6.5 seconds stock which can be brought down to a flat five seconds on an ace crew which is incredible really for 3.3 mobility is okay it's not incredible but it doesn't really hold the tank back at all it has the same engine performance as the m3 li but as the sherman is a few tons heavier it's a little slower but not by much you'd hardly notice armor much like the lee again is interesting though from the exact front the m4a1 is pretty strong on the upper hull it has around 70 to 80 millimeters of effective protection but this increases a lot against lower caliber rounds and overall isn't bad it can still bounce a lot of the main russian and german guns higher up on the plates as well sometimes but very inconsistently the turret as well is fairly well armored with the base thickness of 76 millimeters and a lot of sloping around the side of the turret and mantlet so its thickness is really quite effective it does have a small almost gamey weak spot on the left side of the turret though from what i remember this is to make space for the electric turret drive mechanism but it might have actually just been a general casting issue i can't quite remember this does give some of the weaker guns an opportunity to break through the turret but it's a very small spot especially at range and most players don't even really seem aware of it so it's nothing to be hugely concerned about the primary flaw in the armor though are the corners of the hull these are very weak at only 38 millimeters and they slope around the side of the hull which means you can't increase the frontal protection of this tank without creating a massive weak spot in the side armor even weak guns can get through this rounded corner quite easily which makes positioning your hull a bit of a problem as to keep your armor effective you can't angle this thing at all the biggest functional floor of these curved plates is that you can't really drive out from around corners without presenting the enemy this weak spot you can't even sidescrape either as this as well will show the corner the most effective way to push corners is to approach them almost straight on from a very shallow angle and align the corner of the cover you're pushing with your barrel this should ensure that your angled corner stays behind cover which doesn't give the enemy any frontal weak spot this is actually the position where the hull armor is the most effective it can be so maybe see if you can actually find an area like this to play around but regardless of the inconsistent armor the sherman is still an incredible platform the firepower really is fantastic at this vr and the reload really makes it stand out it reloads faster than all of the main contemporary guns other nations use and the stabilizer makes it better still which puts me in a bit of a difficult situation in regards to describing how best to use it because apart from my angling the hull this tank has effectively no other active drawbacks which means your success will mostly just come down to general game skill map knowledge and shot placement if you get the shermans into a good spot and know where to aim it will basically do everything else for you if you are struggling with its armor though try playing hull down the turret is much more reliably protected than the hull and it has 12 degrees of gun depression so it can use ridges pretty easily there is a term i like using to describe vehicles like this and it's a bit obnoxious but the sherman is a perfect example of a tank tank what i mean by that is effectively just a vehicle that does everything it needs to do as a gun that will easily knock out enemies armor that will save it within reason relative to its vr and mobility that lets it get to where it needs to be in the map it really is a great vehicle the only tanks it really struggles against are the russians the kv-1 and t34 can be hard as they do require a more precise shot for the t-34s you'll need to focus on the turret at close range you can get through the front of the hull if it's unangled but it's not reliable for the earlier models the 1914-41 aim for the turret cheeks it's usually one shot but either way it will at least [ __ ] the tank for the 1942 model try going for the turret neck the blisters on either side of the turret are double stacked armor so they will catch your aphe you can as well go for the turret face to the sides of the blisters but it's a tricky shot at range for the kv-1s the most reliable spot is the corner of the turret you can get through the unangled hull at close range but if it is angled it's very inconsistent the turret cheeks are what i usually go for to the most success the up armored panzer 4s can be tricky with the extra track armor on the hull but if in doubt go for the turret you'll be able to make it through any usual combat range most other tanks really are point and click though the round really is that good so annoyingly playstyle wise there's not really too much else i can say about it without being patronizing and i'm not going to do that pros great firepower decent armor fast reload and versatile and the cons poor hal armor don't really need a verdict here do we of course pick this one up it's hal armor can be finicky but apart from that it really hits all the key points a vehicle needs to hit to work and the m4a1 comfortably fills all corners of the tank trifecta within reason this sherman does play a bit differently to a bulk of the others but if you can master this thing's play style you'll really really enjoy what the us tree has to offer next up we have the m4 which keeps most aspects of the sherman the same but does offer some improvement mobility and firepower are essentially identical the only difference is that this version loses 2 degrees of gun depression but gains 7 extra degrees of gun elevation which doesn't come into play much but it is still an improvement regardless the main change though is of course the armor which is a lot more reliable it does bring some drawbacks but overall it is an improvement especially as this version can now angle the hull is made up of straight angular plates with no rounding so you're no longer at a disadvantage if an enemy is firing at you from an angle which does nullify the primary drawback the m4a1 had the hull front as well has a higher effective thickness overall but it does have some flat blisters in front of the driver and machine gunner which does make it possible for some of the weaker guns to get through but it's not the easiest weak spot especially if you can stay on the move while they're being shot at the turret as well is improved the mantlet has double armor layers making it very effective and as a solid plate blocking the previous weak spot on the left side of the turret as well it does still have its weak spots but the turret can stop the german 75 and similar guns across a lot of its surface not to a degree of constant reliability but it will save you sometimes so playstyle doesn't really change too much when it comes to this thing the m4 only really has passive advantages over the m4a1 which does of course make it better but the tanks offensively can effectively do the same things the most important aspect to adjust for though is what you can now do with the armor as the hull is now stronger from different angles you can now be much more reliably aggressive especially when it comes to pushing corners if you angle the hull even some of the tougher cannons will now start to bounce if you get lucky if you are engaging an enemy always keep the hull angled the bulges on the front mean you can never be consistently safe as even when angled they can still be shot through but they are at least harder to hit even more so if you keep on the move while you're being engaged if an enemy is scoping you in try to drive forwards at an angle this will keep the angle of your hull changing which makes it much harder for an enemy to accurately hit the most angle appropriate side of your hull and especially the weak spots always try to do this when possible but just make sure you aren't over angling as your side armor is much much weaker so try and keep the angle in favor of the front plate just in case at the speeds he'll be moving at while defensively maneuvering like this the gun will still remain perfectly stable allowing you to shoot back at enemies fairly easily and quickly so never present yourself as a static target keep moving and make it as hard as possible for an enemy to hit you accurately your armor is way more effective when utilized like this so keep it in mind for the future as effectively all of the shermans work with this principle the stabilizer really does give you a massive advantage and to get the most out of the shermans you should play in such a way that utilizes it as no other enemies at this tier have this level of stabilization so when it comes to reaction time you can beat them constantly on the move when it comes to accurately firing unless of course you meet another sherman which at this point isn't exactly unlikely apart from this though nothing much changes in playstyle ultimately pros great firepower good armor fast reload and versatile and the cons constant weak spots verdict i definitely get this one too it's more forgiving than the previous version despite the higher br and has a pretty strong place at 3.7 so like the m4a1 i really can't recommend this one enough next up we have our last sherman list here the m4a3105 which is overall one of the most unique shermans as it doesn't really play similarly to the rest the most apparent change is to the firepower as this thing uses a 105 millimeter howitzer instead of the standard 75 millimeter gun it comes equipped with stock he heat and the smoke round too the he can work pretty well as it has 27 millimeters of penetration but the heat round is generally more reliable it one shots fairly consistently and has 130 millimeters of penetration which is safely enough to get through basically anything around this br the rest of its firepower attributes aren't amazing though firstly it doesn't have an electric turret drive meaning that stock it can only traverse the gun at 3.6 degrees a second which is painfully slow the rounds are also quite hard to aim as they're very low velocity at 381 meters a second for the heat which makes engaging a distance quite hard the reload is also fairly long as well at 13 seconds stock which makes landing your shots even more important but this thing does have some fallbacks and that's chiefly down to the armor for 2.7 this thing is almost a heavy tank it also doesn't have any pronounced frontal weak spots like the other shipments the hull is one single plate and the turret doesn't have the weak spot on the left side either the hull has an effective base thickness of 80 to 90 millimeters which is made even better by angling the turret 2 is also pretty strong with the turret cheeks being in general around 100 millimeters thick and the mantlet having just under 90 millimeters of armor which again for 2.7 is really really good this thing is frontally immune to a lot of tanks that can potentially fight the mobility is also better than the other shermans too having a 500 horsepower engine which lets it travel at a slightly higher top speed and lets it maneuver easily as well and maneuvering is something that it really needs to do one of the biggest challenges for this tank is combating the slow turret traverse generally this is countered by playing at long range as you can effectively cover more ground by moving the gun less but this tank doesn't really work at long range sure you can be almost invulnerable but aiming the gun isn't going to be too reliable this tank ultimately is really suitable for brawling as at close range you don't really need to worry about the low velocity and the armor at least frontally will keep you alive even in up tiers it still works very well although of course less reliably like the m3 li this thing works best along linear sight lines locations on the map that keep enemies in a predictable area if you're playing around a location with lots of different sight lines and routes enemies could take you may get attacked from an angle which is difficult to counter as the turret traverse is just so slow one way to combat this though is moving the hull rather than the turret in fact it's more beneficial if you don't traverse the turret around much at all and keep it pointed forward as if you traverse it to the side it will take a while to turn back and if you meet an enemy while the turret's at the side sure you can swing the hull around and point the gun at them but then they can hit your weak side armor and if you try and keep the hull pointed towards them then they can just slice right through the side of the turret so always try and keep the gun around the middle of the hull at all times if you're careful you can get away with being really aggressive in the 105 as just so many enemies will really struggle to scratch it from the front you can rush tanks point blank and still survive for a fairly long time although there are some vehicles to be careful of of course guns like the russian 76 and 57 and the german 75 can still get through with a well-placed shot so you're still not invulnerable so you should still angle the hull to increase the effectiveness regardless apart from that you mostly just need to make sure you're not over extending and keeping most of the enemies in the general area in front of you of course some maps won't really allow for you to guarantee this but it's a worthwhile aspect to keep in mind as even weak tanks can knock you out from the side if you're confident you can definitely push and break through behind enemy lines for the chance of more kills but it is a risk and if you just want to focus on staying alive advancing with your team is really the way to go if you do find yourself in trouble though the 105 has roof mounted smokes like the chaffee so you can use them to back off and re-engage if you need to for using the gun like we said earlier you'll mostly just want to be using the heat it's a tier 1 mod so you can get it very quickly for the first few games where you'll need to use the he though try to aim for the bottom of the turret on most enemy vehicles this will usually send fragments down into the hull and [ __ ] the tank it doesn't work for everything but it is at least quite reliable you can also try landing the shell on the roof some enemies too or try to hit the capola if the tank has one the he can also one-shot a lot of vehicles if you land the shell underneath the enemy you can do this by aiming for the side of the track or a wheel underneath the tank and this can be quite reliable and weirdly satisfying actually the hc is also a bit easier to aim as it has a higher velocity but it will still struggle with some enemies so the heat overall does have more potential as there are some tanks and up tiers that the hg can barely scratch once you have the heat you can generally aim for center mass as the explosive power of the shell will provide a wide cone of damage so if you hit the hull of your enemy front on you'll usually knock them out try to avoid aiming for the lower plate if you can as for a lot of vehicles this is where the transmission is and the transmission loves to eat heat jets what a sentence that is but you know what i mean the transmission will usually stop the jet and because your reload is so long you'll want to aim for one shot as often as possible it will take some practice to get used to the round but once you nail it this thing can be tons of fun pros great firepower great armor and good mobility and the cons terrible turret traverse long reload and low versatility verdict i'd go for this one it doesn't have much longevity as the other shermans are way more versatile but 2.7 this thing really is a monster and it does have a good lineup as well with the stuart and lee so even though you probably won't be using it for long it's still a fun vehicle to play and definitely a fun one to come back to once you reach the later tiers as well so next up we have our anti-air vehicles this tier and we're starting with one that's probably incredibly familiar this is the m16 mgmc which is essentially identical to the m13 and tier 1 but with two extra 50 cars due to the tiny increase in weight the m16 is slightly slower but you would basically never notice the difference apart from that the vehicles are the same as we went into the m13 for such a long time in the last episode i won't go over all those details again so i strongly recommend you watch the previous video if you haven't already as i'll only be briefly touching on this one at 2.3 the extra pair of 50 cals can still work really well there's not as much application for using the m16 in the anti-tank role though as lightly armored vehicles will start getting a bit rarer in up tiers but it is still possible at 2.3 to somewhat play this way it will just steadily get less reliable at hpr jump in any case though the quad 50s do a great job of taking down aircraft because of how they're positioned and the dispersion of the rounds you have a pretty wide area of effect for shooting down aircraft as even if you don't have the best accuracy the spread of the bullets will somewhat make up for it as they cover a decently wide area which does make it a very forgiving anti-air platform overall pros great anti-air ability and good mobility and the cons force 5 ability verdict i definitely get it it's an objectively better aa than the m13 and will still work well beyond the tbr as 50s as an anti-air platform never really stop being effective the guns are easy to lead and do a decent amount of damage and as well as pretty much all of the later tanks in this 3brys have a 50 cal on the roof getting the hang of the lead of this gun will be really helpful down the line so it's well worth keeping this one for your future lineups next up is our second anti-air this tier which is effectively an upgrade but functionally a downgrade this is the m15 cgmc which is a fair bit different it comes with 250 cals and a single millimeter gun in the center which on the surface doesn't seem too bad so why is it at 2.0 when the m16 is 2.3 well there's a lot of issues with this thing arguably the worst is the dead zone this thing can't fire over the front of the cabin like the m16 the guns have to elevate over it creating a fairly large frontal area where you can't fire this dead zone extends over the very top of the cabin as well so even though it looks like it should be able to depress more it can't for whatever reason this means that this a doesn't have a full 360 degree coverage of the air making tracking and hitting aircraft quite difficult and there are two other factors that further limit this ability firstly the traverse rate is incredibly slow for an anti-air vehicle stock this thing traverses at just over 14.9 degrees a second which for a bit of perspective is slower than the traverse rate on the shermans and nearly three times slower than the m16 this in general still would be terrible but considering that the m15 still needs to adjust for the dead zone as well really makes tracking a moving target difficult a further issue is the main gun the 37 this kicks up a fair bit of recoil and if fired continuously it loses pretty much all accuracy especially at range not good for hitting an agile aircraft a mile away so what is this thing good at well it's not really adept at anything it might be one of the most redundant vehicles in the game but it can to a degree go after some tanks the 37 does have ap rounds with a max pen of 48 millimeters at point blank and 40 millimeters at 500 meters so at 2.0 it can be used in this way but it's really not easy forgiving or even worth it really because of the dead zone you can't drive straight towards enemy vehicles as you have no way to hit them so to engage enemies this means you either need to wait and ambush somewhere with a gun to the side or drive backwards towards where enemies could be this is workable but it's very slow either way it's the best defensive option you have the m15 is only really usable below 2.3 though as at 2.7 and above you'll start running into a lot of common tanks you can't even get through frontally so the chance of meeting one of these tanks combined with the multi-level tedium involved with getting this vehicle into a position where it can actually work isn't worth the effort most of the time at 2.0 you can really be a danger in the right spot especially against russian vehicles but that factor is largely out of your control for engaging aircraft the most important thing to keep in mind is the position of your chassis because you can't reliably track aircraft over the cabin you'll need to swing the vehicle around to try and keep the cabin away from where the aircraft is flying for using the 37 try to only fire it in short bursts the he will do a lot of damage if it hits but the recoil is generally too inconsistent to lead accurately while holding down the fire button the 37 does fire independently of the 50s as well the 50s are controlled by the machine gun key and the 37 by the main fire key so if you just want to use the 50s to avoid the recoil you can do that too if you prefer pros anti-air ability question mark and the cons terrible firing platform and poor survivability no surprises here i would avoid this one despite having a more powerful gun it barely holds any tangible benefit over the m13 i wouldn't be surprised if this thing swaps places with the m16 in the tree someday but even then it probably still wouldn't be worth using it only really works in a 2.0 lineup and even then the m13 is way more usable for now i definitely skip this one next up we have the m8 scott which during making this video has actually been moved down to tier 1 which was long overdue really especially as this tank is 1.3 and it is 1.3 for a good reason it's not a very easy vehicle to use it's equipped with an interesting cannon though a 75 millimeter howitzer that fires heat it does also come with an hd round but unlike the sherman 105 it's basically useless it can also fire smokes too the heat can get through 89 millimeters of flat armor which at 1.3 is enough to break through anything it also reloads much faster at 4.3 seconds stock but it's still a very hard round to aim at only 304 meters a second which does make firing over ranges pretty tricky it also inherits the manual turret traverse from the 105 as well as the same stock speed 3.6 degrees a second which really makes this thing tedious it's on a very similar hull to the stuart armor layout is a bit different but it functions the same it has very little reliable armor in any case but it is still very mobile especially on paved ground which is an advantage but it's an advantage you can't really use that well the stuart has a fast turret and stabilizer so it can work pretty well running and gunning on the move and engaging at close range the m8 can't really do this as the gun is really unstable and the turret traverse makes reacting to enemies very hard this thing takes such a long time to react to enemies that it can't really use its mobility aggressively which in general is the most useful advantage of mobility to catch enemies off guard the m8 can catch enemies off guard but it can't fire them quick enough to really deliver on that so to make this thing work you need to either engage an enemy from a stationary position or flank them in such a way that doesn't give them enough time to react to you and the former is more reliable here you do still have mobility on your side so you can use this quite effectively to rush early into the map to take a strong vantage point and from there stay relatively still and wait for enemies to come to you this will require a good spot though which isn't always easy to find but it is still a very consistent way to play this thing sitting around a corner or watching a chokepoint this effectively nullifies all of its disadvantages one thing it is especially good at though is engaging behind ridgelines as this thing has 20 degrees of gun depression which means it can use areas of the map other tanks can't so it can really make use of steep hills to keep it protected this is especially useful combined with its reverse gear of 16 kph so it can pull back into cover very quickly not all maps offer such steep terrain but if the option is there you might as well take it all in although the ambush strategy is the most universally applicable you can do this on basically all maps by quickly rushing to a sight line you can effectively cover and from there you have the mobility to react to how the match is going advancing forward with your team or backing off also it's good to find a position that lets you engage enemies from close range the gun is pretty different to most others in the tree and it is really difficult to aim at distance it might take a few shots to properly range in your target and by that point they'll be well aware of you close range makes the gun much easier to use you are of course more vulnerable at close range so make sure to stay hidden and avoid pushing up to enemies yourself if at all possible also this thing does have a 50 cal which 1.3 is a pretty effective weapon in and of itself you can knock out most russian tanks with it frontally and a fair few others from the side so use it when you can it's pretty functional and finally like the 105 make sure to keep the turret pointed forward and use the whole traverse to compensate for the manual drive if there's an enemy at your side always swing the hull around to face them rather than just turning the turret as this alone will take a depressingly long time pros decent firepower and good mobility and the cons force five ability terrible turret traverse and low versatility verdict i'd consider it it's not a vehicle you'll need to use for very long the m3 and m5 stewards fill the early light tank roll perfectly this thing can work but it generally brings more tedium than it's worth sure the round is great and it negates almost all armor but it just doesn't really feel fun to drive this thing you'll probably see what i mean if you end up using it yourself it isn't entirely useless though so if you want to flesh out your low tier lineups it does still add something lastly for the tech tree vehicles today we have the m10 wolverine which recently got its vr lowered to 3.3 and at this vr it can do very very well it comes equipped with a fantastic gun the m776 millimeter variants of which will be quite common later down the line predominantly it fires ap and aphe the apg round is of course the primary round to use and it's pretty great it has the same filler as the aph on the 75s but this one offers a maximum of 149 millimeters of penetration it can still cut through 100 millimeters of flat armor at a thousand meters so the gun on this thing really doesn't struggle with anything apart from perhaps the occasional kv-1 it is however plagued with a manual traverse again at an even slower speed of only 2.7 degrees a second stock which is one of the slowest traverse rates in the entire game if not the slowest armor is not too bad though the front plate is 38 millimeters thick with the ability to mount add-on track armor as well this gives it a decent amount of effective thickness but most guns can just slice right through it regardless of this though it does help protect against some of the lower caliber guns like the german 50 millimeter though so it does have some function the turret armor is a bit more reliable though as it offers around 80 millimeters of effective thickness this can sometimes bounce higher caliber rounds and the russian guns especially do struggle with it at range so even though the m10 is an open top td it's a bit more survivable than most mobility is decent too it's about the same as the sherman's off-road with a very similar overall speed but like with the m8 it can't really use the speed aggressively the lack of armor and turret traverse really hold it back in such situations which ultimately is fine as unlike the m8 the m10 has a gun that works very effectively at range this thing is the quintessential sniper in playstyle really it gains no advantages from playing at close range only disadvantages really the turret traverse makes reacting to enemies difficult and the armor is fairly unreliable it's not impossible to play this way if you're careful but it's not the most suitable position to be in you do have enough mobility to push to a good defensive spot early in the match and this is what i'd recommend doing make sure you're not pushing too far though as this thing isn't exactly slow and if you're just driving aimlessly and not paying attention you might find yourself further into the map than you need to be and by that point there's not a lot you can do to quickly back out of the situation the gun has enough penetration over range to comfortably play there and your slow turret reverse is less of a problem too the most ideal spot for this thing is hull down as well as atari armor is kind of okay not reliable but way better than the protection offered by the hull so you should prioritize a spot like this if you can find one if possible as well try and cover a narrow sight line as this will usually keep visible enemies confined in a tighter area which means moving your turret less saving you time like all tanks with poor traverse rates you can use the hull to speed up traversing the gun but be wary of over-angling as the upper side armor is only 19 millimeters thick so a lot of shells can just punch right through it so apart from these gimmicks here play style is overall quite simple as long as you can avoid the front lines and hide your hull you'll be in the best position you can be from distance you'll rarely struggle with any enemy really angled kv ones can be tricky but everything else you can mostly just slice through always do keep an eye on your flanks though as if you take a hit to the side and lose your engine or driver you don't have the ability to react to the enemy before it's too late so do keep an eye on the positions of your teammates if you are sniping out of the way if there's a gap in the map where your teammates are absent keep an eye on it for any enemies potentially sneaking up on you pros great firepower and the cons unreliable armor terrible turret reverse and low versatility verdict get it it's not the most versatile tank of the vr but the firepower alone carries it it gives you the ability to defeat essentially all enemy armor especially in optis if you get a map where the shermans don't work well this thing will still have a place its armor was never entirely reliable anyway so fighting tanks with more powerful guns don't really matter you can still cut through all of them so i would say the m10 is a pretty important vehicle to pick up here once you can find some spots to make it work you'll definitely get some good results first for our premium line vehicles is an old event tank the m24 tl with the tl standing for thunder league which was an esports event that started at the tail end of 2015 and for some tasks you can unlock this tank which is close to identical to the regular chaffee the only real difference is that this version comes with the t45 apcr round which this tier is a bit useless i don't think i've ever actually had to use it this round isn't unique to this chaffee it is found on some of the later tanks in the tree but it does at least make this version a little bit more unique the coolest thing about it though is that it comes with all of the thunder league team camos at the time these camos could be earned for a specific vehicle while the event was running but the m24tl has all of them because this tank is explicitly linked to the thunder league i think it's very unlikely to see a return at any point as it's not a premium and therefore has no monetary value apart from scarcity i don't have any idea if it will come back or not but i think it's very unlikely personally in any case though nothing to be upset about if you don't have it as it is close to identical and offers nothing meaningful over the standard chaffey next up is another effectively unobtainable vehicle the t18e2 this is a heavy armored car that really does have a lot to offer it's decently well armored for a 3.0 light tank very nippy on roads and uses one of my favorite guns in the entire game the 57 millimeter m1 think of it as a six pounder that can fire aphe every four seconds on an ace crew it's a little sluggish off-road but in general it's a really great vehicle this was available in the world war ii chronicles event in 2018 for completing some tasks it has appeared since on the marketplace in incredibly limited numbers the tournament price and is effectively currently out of stock maybe there are a few people still hoarding coupons for it but for the time being there's no way to get this thing sadly if it does come around again i think it's well worth earning is it's a really fun and unique vehicle with a really satisfying gun too if you want to give the gun a go actually it's available on the russian su-57 which is a decent premium 2 in its own right next up is an old vent vehicle the lvta zys2 which is variant used by china and fitted with the russian 57 millimeter zis2 cannon which is really good it does effectively have a turret but it can't turn very far either side so positioning this thing is a bit hard especially down to the poor gun depression the reload is also quite long as well at 8.7 seconds which is over two seconds slower than the other russian tanks that use the 57. it has great damage potential but quite poor usability overall this vehicle was a prize for the winter marathon in late 2016 and currently sits on the market as a limited supply coupon which currently has its price listed at over 200 gaijin coin so please don't consider buying this especially as an identical version is available in the chinese tree for free so if you'd really like to try it yourself you can give it a go there maybe more coupons will be given out again in the future but it's hard to say with a tank like this it's not a premium and it's a copy so it has basically no product value it's just an obscure collectible really and to be honest it's pretty much better off left that way next up we have the m5a1 td this is another unobtainable vehicle that was given out via twitch drops and a parallel campaign for enlisted you could also get the tank there as well although it enlisted it's called carol it's a shame it's not called carol in war thunder as well actually as td is effectively a fantasy designation and carol would be more fitting alongside other ace vehicles but anyway this one isn't a premium and it's identical to the regular stuart so it's a historical reskin effectively maybe i'll come around again for future twitch drops but it probably won't be back for a very long time although as it is a copy you're not missing out next up another identical stuart this one is the m5a1 fifth armored division and it's canadian which is nice this one is premium so it's a bit more interesting than the previous stuart but it's largely unobtainable now if you play on xbox you can get it there via the microsoft store in a starter pack bundle but apart from that it's sadly no longer available although it does sometimes come up in special promotions like in humble bundle and that sort of thing so it's not unlikely that we'll see it available again it's a nice tank to collect as it is a premium and the stuarts are always great so keep an eye out for it if it ends up being cheap next up we have the grant 1 which probably looks quite familiar this is basically just a british version of the lee with a different turret design the grant is better than the lee in some ways but does have a downside the turret armor is thicker at 76 millimeters which means when hulled down this thing can even deflect the german 75 over a decent range the turret also has the capacity to launch smoke grenades like the sherman 105 and chaffee which does help getting the tank out of trouble but it's hardly a substantial upgrade the 37 however does lose the shoulder stabilizer which hurts the grant's ability to react to new enemies quickly even though the grant isn't bad it offers no active advantages over the lee the improved armor and smokes are passive advantages in the sense that if you played the grant perfectly and never took a hit it offers no extra benefit over the lee you'd actually perform better in the lead most likely because of the stab but it's still far from a bad tank regardless as a product it's not the best though 1000g is on the cheaper side from premium but like the lee it just doesn't have much longevity if you want to play a lot of 2.7 it'll serve you well for sure but if you want a premium to use for the long run i wouldn't really buy it above 3.7 it really starts losing its edge and there are much better vehicles down the line to buy and as well there are a lot of great tanks this tier to put a talisman on which you can get for effectively half the price of this thing so even though the grant can be a good tank it just doesn't have enough longevity to justify buying it so lastly today we have a bit of an interesting vehicle that's quite unique this is the m4a5 ram 2 a canadian vehicle that has a fair bit going for it it comes with a 57 millimeter cannon the same variant used by some of the early british tanks and can only fire ap which is a bit of a shame but it can still get through over 100 millimeters of armor at 500 meters so it's not bad and with the stock reload of 5.2 seconds it can fire off shots very rapidly and also has a short shoulder stabilizer too mobility predictably is basically the same as the sherman's you'll barely notice much of a difference armor is deceptively good as well the turret mantlet is over 100 millimeters thick collectively with the upper hull having well over 100 millimeters of effective armor as well apart from the weak spot on the driver's hatch it also has this machine gun turret poking out of the hull too which works really well with spaced armor if you angle it towards your enemy armor is not entirely consistent as it does have constant weak spots but the ram is a fairly rare vehicle to see and enemies commonly don't really know how to deal with it quickly this thing does play quite similarly to the shermans though it's fairly good at brawling and the rapid fire gun works quite well at close range although it can still work over distance too so it's a nice versatile platform in that sense interestingly it's also the lowest tank brys to have ess which is usually reserved for high-tier ifvs and mbts now this is the engine smoke generating system and this basically leaves a trail of smoke behind the tank while you're driving which is great for retreating away from the enemy or blocking off a wide sight line it doesn't have a huge amount of uses but it's still a nice thing to have the ram is a fairly cheap premium to buy two with only 1150 ge and it does fit quite nicely into the 3.7 lineup you have which can be really strong so it's not a bad tank to buy it's a premium that's versatile so it can work decently well on most maps and complements an already existing strong lineup so i wouldn't say it's a bad premium to pick up although it doesn't have much longevity and there are some more effective premiums in the later tiers and on the flip side because the 37 lineup is already very strong although the ram brings some new advantages to the table it isn't really necessary so i would really only pick this thing up if you plan to spend a lot of time at 3.7 it is a good vr and forms a nice backbone to start researching tier 3 but at 4.7 and above it does start to lose its edge a little bit but it's a fun versatile unique premium that adds new advantages to the lineup and although it's not the best product in the world it's far from the worst so maybe pick it up if it seems interesting next up we have the aircraft best suited for casts around the brs of the vehicles this tier and we're starting off with the f2a1 this aircraft gets no suspended weaponry like bombs or rockets but comes with 130 cal and 350 cars the f2a is also highly maneuverable which makes looping and diving on enemy tanks very very easy and like we spoke about in the last episode top down 50 cals are incredibly effective because this thing's main weaponry are the guns themselves it has a very cheap spawn cost and can be used very effectively as a fighter as well you could also potentially pick up thatcher's f2a as well for cheapen the premium tree it's entirely identical just with a nice camo it's not an aircraft you'll need to use for long but it is still very effective at the lower ranks and has a huge amount of versatility for what it is next up we have a very famous aircraft the p40 this one comes with 650 cals in the wings and three bombs as well a single 500 and two 100s on the wings that drop as a pair it's a little less maneuverable than the f2a but the bombs do give it an edge as there are some tanks almost immune to 50s you could also potentially play the p40f that comes after this one but the e honestly does fine they're offensively identical it is a bit harder to pull out of a dive when compared to the f2a so you will need to be a little bit more careful flying it but it's still a very capable aircraft for 2.7 next up we have the f4u-1a corsair it's a bit more cumbersome than the previous aircraft but it's very quick decently agile and can take out a 1 000 pound bomb which is of course very effective it also gets the mid-war belts for the 50 cars too so they do a bit more damage against aircraft which definitely helps it also comes with a lot of ammunition as well so the corsair can get a lot done in a single fly out it's a very good fighter too it's quite heavy but with decent flap management you can dogfight a lot of aircraft fairly comfortably and use the speed to fly back to base if you need to i personally prefer this one at 2.7 when compared to the p40 but they both definitely work next up is the a36 apache which is like a very early mustang it's quite heavy but comes with 650 cals and two 500 pound bombs which drop together it can also take out gun pods as well giving it a total of 10 50 cals which really lets it shred through enemies these pods do make it quite heavy though and difficult to perform the necessary maneuvers for strafing out tanks but it can still be a fun one to fly it is a 3.0 though so it doesn't have a lineup and at the next two brs there are effectively better aircraft but as this thing is classified as an attacker it has a separate spawn pool so you can take out this thing and a fighter in the same match without the respawn penalty so it is useful for that at least but not vital if you're not that interested in cass gameplay next up we have the f4u1d a pretty substantial upgrade from the a model it's much faster and can carry two 1000 pound bombs and both of these drop separately which gives you a lot of potential it can also carry rockets in place of bombs and even though h-files work better now thanks to overpressure the bombs in general are more reliable and can kill anything really so the f4 u1d is pretty good it gets out class almost immediately though but 3.3 is a great lineup and if you want to stick there for a while the 1d will definitely serve you well there finally today we have a real standout cast plane the f6 f5 it's very maneuverable comes with a standard 650 cals and some pretty good ordinance too it can carry the same two 1 000 bombs with separate drops at the same time as 6 h5 rockets as well which are great at splashing open-topped vehicles and anti-air it can also carry two massive tiny tim rockets as well which one short anything they landed close to but they are quite hard to aim and it is still quite common to accidentally damage yourself while using them at the shorter distances they can still work great though with some practice but the bowman rocket loadout does have more potential in my opinion all in all the f6l is great for 3.7 and above and definitely well worth using so there we are everyone that's everything for today on screen now are the best stock lineups i think you can make using the vehicles list here so yeah hopefully you've enjoyed the video i don't know how it's going to end up yet because um i've recorded all of the um voiceover for this in one day um it's currently what time is it uh half 10 and i'm still at the office so hopefully um my voice sounds okay throughout all of this because it's like i don't have any words it's like i think 13 000 words this script so um yeah it's been a long day i have drunk uh probably my entire body weight in water so hopefully it's it all sounds okay in the end and uh yeah sorry that this video has taken so long and there's no i guess explicit reason for that it's just um with having this full-time job with gaijin it's uh it's difficult to kind of maintain the same level of energy i have throughout the day in the evening when i get the time to to work on these videos when i get home i sort of just have no energy and feel like i just want to immediately go to sleep which i sometimes do so it takes a while to be able to get into the i guess the right mindset to make a video like this i record the gameplay and you know write the script and do all the other stuff involved it does take some time to get into the right mindset for doing that as i've said before a couple of times uh for me at least it's it's really hard to i guess make these videos when i'm not kind of in the right headspace to do it because i'm not someone that's really very good at kind of i guess faking myself so i can't really brute force myself into making stuff if my heart isn't 100 in it and i only really want to make stuff when that's the case as if i'm kind of doing it as effectively a job like if this becomes an extension of my job i've said it before it kind of takes the soul out of it and i can't really let that happen and of course it's not going to happen otherwise i would just wouldn't really be able to do these at all so it can be tricky sometimes and that's why i guess the schedule for these videos is always a bit inconsistent but when i'm kind of you know in a really kind of good positive mindset for it and i really want to do it i can get a lot of work done in a single day so all things going well it probably won't take as long for the next one i think i say that every episode actually hopefully this time it's the case as a tier three doesn't have that many vehicles so it probably won't take quite as long i really hope so um because you know i'm really glad a lot of you do enjoy these videos and you know i always wish i could make them faster and quicker and more effectively but at the same time i i don't want to force it because if that happens then the video is out there forever not as good as it could have been and at least in my mind that's that's worse than just kind of you know churning out videos for the sake of it so i don't really want to do that so for the time being it they may take a little longer but hopefully it won't always be that way anyway i will uh probably finish my beverage and go home in a minute i have a an impossible to pronounce german beer with me that was uh left in the fridge by my nice colleague martin thank you for that martin and this has been helping me throughout the last hour or so um of recording so i will um finish this and head home i think and start editing as today is uh tuesday and i ideally want to get this finished by wednesday evening so i have a lot of work to do still but hopefully it will go okay anyway this has been very rambly more rambly than most of these sort of outro sessions so um i will leave it there i hope you'll have a lovely day and i will see you all next time [Music] you

Channel: Oxy

Views: 277,309

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Id: QzkUxYDTt1U

Length: 61min 55sec (3715 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 29 2021